Why didn't Saruman take Gandalf's Ring of Power? | Lord of the Rings Lore | Middle-Earth

some of saruman's greatest flaws were his intense craving for power and importance his need to be better than others and his unshakable belief in his own superiority it was these very traits that drove him to study the rings of power and to seek out the one ring for he was convinced that he could master its power and replace sauron and yet despite the sauron's obsession with the rings of power he didn't try to claim gandalf's elven ring after he imprisoned him upon orthanc this presents us with a very curious puzzle did sarah know of gandalf's ring did he even want it and if so what stopped him from taking it so we're not really sure if saruman knew about gandalf's ring for there are some conflicting notes on this topic according to the unfinished tales sauron managed to uncover gandalf's secret that he was the keeper of the elven ring of fire called naria and this filled sauron with jealousy for he desired this ring and it was the start of his hostility towards gandalf now this directly contradicts some of the writings in the silmarillion which say that only elrond galadriel and kierdon knew that gandalf held this elven ring and it's possible that tolkien changed his ideas over time and that this is reflected in his writings and so for the rest of this discussion we'll be assuming that the notes in the unfinished tales are canonical and that saruman was aware of gandalf's ring so first of all it's crucial to understand why did sareman want the elven ring in the first place and to answer this question we must get a better understanding of saruman's character he was known to be very proud and this pride manifested as a superiority complex of sorts and sauron felt entitled to be better than gandalf in every way however when we take a closer look at some of saruman's actions and words it's clear that this superiority complex was quite fragile at times and that sariman was secretly insecure around gandalf even if he wasn't aware of it for example after sariman learnt that kierdan had given his elven ring to gandalf it must have bothered him greatly for he felt insulted that gandalf was chosen over him another example is when gandalf was nominated by galadriel to be the head of the white council for even though gandalf turned down this offer saruman's pride was still injured at being the council's second choice how could the wise beings of middle earth such as galadriel and kierdon think that gandalf was more worthy than him these thoughts intensified sauron's insecurity and he began to openly treat gandalf with less respect and he would contradict or deny many of gandalf's councils during their meetings yet deep down sariman was secretly paying attention to gandalf's words and he was reflecting on everything that gandalf said and these actions are classic traits of an insecure superiority complex he was determined to downplay gandalf and to make it seem like he wasn't needed and by the time of the war of the ring sarman had already crafted his own ring of power if he tried to take gandalf's ring it would imply that he needed or craved something which belonged to gandalf and that gandalf's ring was superior to his own creation and these feelings of dependence would have been unacceptable to sauron's pride it's also possible that by the time of the war of the ring sauron had lost interest in the elven rings of power for he had spent countless years studying their law and he understood their limitations these elven rings weren't meant for war or conquest and they wouldn't really help sauron in that regard for their power lay in healing creation understanding and the preservation of living things from the passage of time gandalf's ring would also empower his spirit so that he could inspire the free people and give them hope once more though i'm sure that none of these powers appealed to saruman he didn't really care about others for his priority and desire was to become a great power so that he could rule and order the world as he saw fit and living things only mattered to him as long as they could serve him or play a part in his schemes and so from saruman's point of view the elven rings were useless to his ambitions for they wouldn't help to become the great power that he dreamed of only the one ring could do so and so saruman would focus all of his energy and will into obtaining it we also shouldn't forget that saruman had created his own ring of power and it's very plausible that this ring served his ambitions and agenda better than the elven rings ever could just to be clear we're not saying that the elven rings weren't powerful artifacts they just didn't contribute at all to sauron's evil goals and so they were useless to him now even if saruman had no use for the elven ring he might have still desired it just because of its precious nature we know that he craved rare and historic items and that he ordered his servants to steal treasures such as heirlooms from rohan or even ancient relics from tombs far off his most precious treasure was probably the star of elendil and saruman was compared to a jackdaw due to his hording nature and so if saruman somehow managed to get over his pride and insecurity what would stop him from taking the elven ring it's possible that sariman was trying to appease gandalf for he was aware that he needed gandalf's help and cooperation from their conversation in orthanc we see how sariman tried to treat gandalf as a friend for he was desperate for more information on the one ring's whereabouts and he had to find it before it fell into the hands of sauron his best hope to do so was through gandalf and it was in saruman's best interest not to antagonize him unnecessarily otherwise why wouldn't he have confiscated gandalf's staff and ring or even his sword glam drink which it once belonged to the king of gondolin the sariman would surely have craved this weapon for it was an ancient relic from the first age and a powerful artifact and so i believe that the only plausible reason for saruman not confiscating these items was that he knew it would be a foolish and short-sighted move that could further compromise his true objective of finding and claiming the one ring of power when saruman chose to ally himself with sauron he was playing a dangerous gamble for he would end up a sauron's servant unless he found the one ring before him and so if saruman chose to claim the elven ring he would put himself in a risky situation for there was a chance that sauron would retrieve the one ring before him and if that were to happen the guardians of the three elven rings would be exposed to sauron and he could now control them and their minds would be laid bare sariman's plans would be revealed and sauron would finally see how his ally had planned to betray him all along and how sariman desired to steal the one ring from its rightful master and to replace him as the dark lord of middle earth sauron would not forgive this betrayal and his vengeance would have been swift and saruman's life would have been in great peril it would make much more sense for saruman to forsake the elven ring so that he wouldn't have to take any more risks especially since he wouldn't benefit at all from its powers we'd also like to mention that the guardians of the elven rings were able to conceal them from others unless they possessed the one ring for example sam couldn't see galadriel's ring in lothlorien while frodo was able to do so since he had the one ring in his possession however since saruman was already aware of gandalf's ring it's unlikely that concealing it would have been enough to stop him from taking it for it was still physically present on gandalf's finger even if saruman couldn't see it anyway this wraps today's video and we hope you enjoyed it do you agree with our points or do you have your own theories on why saruman refused to take gandalf's ring we'd love to hear your thoughts on this so feel free to share them in the comments below as 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Channel: GeekZone

Views: 260,578

Keywords: Why didn't Saruman take Gandalf's ring of Power?, Why did Saruman want Gandalf's ring, Why did Saruman hate Gandalf, Why was Saruman jealous of Gandalf, Was Saruman jealous of Gandalf, Why did Saruman turn evil, Lord of the rings lore, lotr lore, The Elven Rings of Power, What did Gandalf's ring do, Geekzone, The history of Middle-Earth, The Fellowship of the Ring, Sauron, How did Saruman create a new Ring, Why did Saruman want the One Ring, Why did Saruman join Sauron, Saruman

Id: GRj0YFHS7as

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021